The Internet of Props: a Performative Framework for the IoT

The Internet of Things (IOT) is more a system of technologies than a specific technology – a way of interconnecting devices, databases, sensors, communication chips, microcontrollers, to display things and ourselves to the Network. Through these new relationships the IoT has evolved as a conceptual framework for understanding how physical objects and places linked to the Internet will tell us something about the world around them, about themselves and about us. However if indeed the IOT changes the way we cohabit physical space with Things, then Things that can contribute to the making of it.

The paper responds to the appearance, consequences and implications of the IoT. A side effect of its rapid growth and expansion across many sectors – industrial, academic and institutional – is a lack of a critical engagement at a cultural and social level. There are also no clear or defined design methodologies or approaches to bridge the gap. The paper proposes the idea of the ‘prop’, directly borrowed from theatre, as a working metaphor to serve this purpose. The IoT of Props references Goffman’s everyday concept of stage and backstage; suggesting a performative non-representational way of interacting with the digital fabric of this networked dimension.

The new everyday dimension where objects and things become part of an extended social concept of humans and nonhumans uses this performative approach to define objects and things as props. The idea presented in the paper is part of an ongoing practice-based research where props act as tools in IoT transactions which occur when we start to interact with them. The paper will describe the nature and function of props as part of a performative ontology questioning the way we interact with information and how this can be represented. The prop as a token will bridge the earth and the world of bits and bytes (quite possibly the heaven where lives the holy puppeteer).

Gianni Corino is the Associate Head of School Digital Art & Technology Subject and Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Interactive Media. He is also in the last stage of his PhD on embodied networks in the context of Internet of Things. He has a lot of industrial experience in the media industry as he worked for some large international firms, before moving to academia as Lecturer and researchers at Turin Polytechnic. His background is in performance, media and social studies, graphics and electronic communication, his research interests are in space, memory and social agency in the field of interaction design and digital art. Like the puppet he built a few years ago, Quixote (www.quixote.it) he enjoys new challenges and exploring the world, which is why he came to Plymouth. Recent works include a collaboration project with visual artist Chiara Boeri on an installation entitled ‘Metrobosco’, based on a participatory and ecological approach to urban redesign that was selected for Siggraph Art Gallery 2007.